The restaurant industry is in a constant state of evolution, driven by fickle consumers and a highly competitive environment.

But that change came pretty quickly in 2018 and shows no sign of abating. That leaves us curious about a lot of different things heading into the new year—many of which could have a significant impact on the country’s restaurants.

Here are some big questions we’re asking.

Will there be any publicly traded chains left?

Buffalo Wild Wings, Bravo Brio Restaurant Group, Fogo de Chao, Zoes Kitchen, Sonic Corp., and Bojangles' all either went private or are about to. Four other chains are looking for buyers: Papa Murphy’s Pizza, Papa John’s, Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group and Jack in the Box.

Any chain short of McDonald’s and Starbucks could be sold next year, and it doesn’t even have to be on the market.

My guess is no, that if it was going to happen it would have happened by now. And restaurant analyst Mark Kalinowski has indicated he hears JAB could be targeting a different market—pizza. But JAB certainly has the ability to swallow Dunkin', and until the firm stops buying people will keep asking.

Will the McDonald’s strategy start paying off?

Arguably no restaurant chain in the U.S. is doing more right now to change its stores and its image than the biggest one. But so far all of those efforts—delivery, new value strategies, new chicken products, fresh beef, kiosks at restaurants, curbside service—have yet to pay off in the form of more traffic.

Will sales finally start growing?

The chain restaurant industry has struggled with broad-based traffic challenges for three years now and there’s no real end to the slump in sight. Consumers are changing, shifting their restaurant allegiances, eating more takeout and dining at smaller concepts and independents more often.

What’s more, the economy is clearly past peak and the risk of recession grows all the time. All of this means we’re probably in for another year of weakness. Or maybe not.

Will delivery finally move the sales needle?

The single biggest industry trend in the past two years has been delivery—or, perhaps it’s been takeout, with delivery a major part of it. So far, it seems, that service has been to the benefit of smaller concepts at the expense of major chains.

We have seen little evidence that chains adding delivery do much to generate sales and traffic growth, even if we believe it’s important for them to do so given urban consumers’ clear demand for the service.

At some point, however, we wonder if chains will begin de-emphasizing the service if it doesn’t translate into sales growth.

Others could follow. More than a few franchisees, for instance, are paying attention to the issue at McDonald’s. If sales continue to be a challenge, labor costs continue to rise and franchisors continue to push demands on operators to make expensive changes, other systems could see similar uprisings.